Oh my! First time blogging in 2021! But this blog is something of a tribute to a mall that I once considered the Mall Of The 90s here in the SouthCoast of Massachusetts: the Silver City Galleria.
The Galleria opened up back in 1992 and my family & I heard about this great wonder and thought we should check it out and we did! We saw stores that we have never seen before at our North Dartmouth Mall but some of the stores were going to be there years after. We first saw a Ruby Tuesday, which ended up opening at the Dartmouth Mall location 2 years after. We saw a Ground Round across from Ruby, another restaurant that opened up in Dartmouth soon thereafter. It also had an Electronics Boutique & a Babbage's that merged into GameStop years later. It also had a CyberStation, which was the Galleria's answer to the North Dartmouth Mall's Dream Machine. Of course, you gotta have a Sears there, which Sears was like the iconic store of the malls over the years and decades! They had a JC Penney as well. They had a Sam Goody, which was the Galleria's answer to the North Dartmouth Mall's Record Town at the time before fye took over. They have some of the stores that the Dartmouth Mall had as well like FootLocker, WeatherVane & Newport Creamery. Heck, they even had a food court, which was the first time I have seen a food court at the mall when the North Dartmouth Mall didn't even have once until 2000. Plus, the Galleria was a 2-story mall.
Over the years some of the stores that began in 1992 ended up leaving the Galleria to make way for new stores like the Disney Store, Macy's , Steve & Barry's, Dick's Sporting Goods , Hot Topic, Gadzooks and many more. Approaching the 2000s, the Galleria started going downhill, especially in 2008. By that time, the Internet started to keep folks away from the mall via online shopping. In 2009, I decided to go to the Best Buy at the Silver City Galleria to try out some computers by the way of searching in Google. Thanks to the Galleria Best Buy, I was inspired to get a computer so I can use the Internet to open up a "whole new world" in my life as a way to communicate, socialize and even shop and be creative! But in the 2010s, the malls in America started to become a thing of the past, even our malls here in Massachusetts were not safe.... the Harbour Mall in Fall River, which opened in 1971, closed its doors in 2016 and was demolished and in its place is the SouthCoast MarketPlace. The Swansea Mall, which opened up in 1975, closed its doors in 2019 and was demolished soon thereafter. Now at this point only 2 malls left standing, the Silver City Galleria and the Dartmouth Mall. The stores at the Silver City Galleria were leaving one by one until there was a few stores left like Dick's, Round One, & Regal Cinemas left. Then COVID-19 happened, forcing the closing process of the Galleria to speed up and on February 29, 2020..... almost 28 years to the day it opened back in 1992....the Galleria has closed its doors for good, leaving the 50-year-old Dartmouth Mall as the last mall standing in SouthCoast Massachusetts.
I had great memories at the Galleria Mall... like the time my family, along with 2 of my church youth group friends went to the Galleria on a rainy day while camping in KOA Middleboro. Another great memory was when I went Christmas shopping with the church youth group and I first saw Super Street Fighter 2, Fatal Fury 2 & World Heroes 2 at the Cyber Station arcade. Another one when I saw The Santa Clause with my father and played a unique arcade fighting game by Capcom known as DarkStalkers at the Hoyt's Cinema. I also saw another movie at the Hoyt's Cinema with my church youth group called Mrs. Doubtfire. When Hoyt's became Regal Cinemas, I saw 2 movies there: Pixels and Hobbs & Shaw. I also met 2 sports celebrities while I was at the Galleria as well, then-Red Sox first baseman Brian Daubach & then- Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri. Memories that I never forget as long as I live! Sorry to see the Silver City Galleria Mall close and then get torn down thereafter.
I will end this blog by saying this was coming due to the fact that the Great Depression in 2008 and the Internet along with COVID- 19 plus poor management played roles in shutting down the Galleria. I will miss the Galleria but its legacy will live on via pictures and an archive website created by James Walsh: https://www.silvercitygalleria.org/ <----- go here to check out its legacy it leaves behind. Thank you, Silver City Galleria. RIP.
